"The 33"-Road Bike RacingWe set this forum up for our members to discuss their experiences in either pro or amateur racing, whether they are the big races, or even the small backyard races. Don't forget to update all the members with your own race results.

After a lot of back and forth with myself, I decided to race C's again this year because I've never raced a crit and I want to start doing crits this year. Then I went and missed Sunday's crit. Brilliant. Anyway, here's my report on Saturday:

The weather was a nice surprise, and the field was huge. I just got an e-mail saying they're thinking about putting in some D races because there were so many people there. I did my first ever race at DePauw last year, so I kept having a bunch of old memories coming back. I managed to get there early and find my way towards the front of the line, so all in all I was feeling pretty good about the day. Last year I made the mistake of being too far in the back, and I lost sight of the peloton and never caught back up (there's an old report in here somewhere, which would probably be too embarassing for me to look at again).

The yellow line rule was in effect, so I stayed close to it and used the left side of the road as my way out if something crazy were to happen. I had mixed results with this strategy. The good news is that I saw two crashes in front of me, but managed to get around both of them without incident. The bad news is that I didn't get in a good position for the last kilometer or so.

I'm not sure if it was the big field or the cop car in front or what, but there was a lot of getting up to speed, slowing down to a snail's pace, and speeding up again. Every time I got into a comfortable flow the inevitable slowing would come again. For a while there on the last lap we actually got into a good fast flow for a while, and I thought we'd finally get down to business, but we ended up slowing again.

Towards the end I wasn't agressive enough in getting towards the very front. The pack was so big that there wasn't really space to get through easily, so with the two earlier crashes in mind I just wimped it out and decided to just stay to the left and try to burst ahead of some people once the whole road was open for the uphill sprint. On the downhill before the sprint some guy popped a spoke or something (I felt bad for that guy), which slowed a few of us down and ruined my strategy. I finished somewhere in the main pack, so my result won't be anything too exciting when it's finally posted.

I raced B's. Wasnt sure if that was the smartest idea and I definitally had butterflies at the beginning since it was my first ever road race but I did it. The race was a 6 mile leadout with 3 8 mile laps equalling 30 total miles. It was great weather probably around lower 40s, as DX said. There were 4 of us racing B's on the team. One of our guys was out with a back problem after about 8 miles. The other 3 of us stayed relatively in the middle of the pack for most of the ride. There was a ton of slowing and speeding (often to catch attempted breaks). Indiana had so many guys out there they were often in control of the peloton. My bar came slightly lose as I was on the hoods with about 8 miles to go so I had to ride the last lap in my drops, which wasnt too fun. I too am looking foreward to the results as it was 3 of our 4 guys' first road race. Fortunitally none of us were involved in the many crashes (I saw 5 alone) that part was insane, almost like some people had never ridden in a pack before. It took quite a few riders out of the race. One guy slammed into a truck, another crash was about an 8-10 bike pileup I barely avoided on the final lap. Of our 3 guys left myself and another guy were probably in the top 15 or 20 and our 3rd guy was off the peloton a little after a faster final lap probably about a minute or two behind. Overall great experience, cant wait for Ohio. Avg speed ~22.5

edit: the fields were absolutly huge, we must have had 100+ riders out there, and the C's were even bigger.

I was in the Bs race as well. I went down in the crash on the last lap. I was sitting pretty in 15th or so when some dumb POS from IU went off the road and then decided to swerve, rather quickly, back onto it, and everyone had to swerve left and hit the brakes to get around him. I ran up the back of someone, as did a bunch of others, taking 5-10 people down. I didn't know it at the time, but a teammate of mine went down as well, and DNF'd. Luckily I got up quickly and finished, although well behind the main field. What really got to me was the fact that two guys who were behind me on my team finished in the top 5 and top 15, respectively. If only I had been slightly to the right or left...

Overall, the race was a joke. IU had so many people in the race that it was nearly impossible to move up the field without crossing the yellow line. They chased down their own breaks a number of times. I made my moves on the hills, if you can call them that, and picked up spots pretty much every time.

Due to my crash, I was feeling pretty shi**y, and decided not to race the crit sunday.

I'm not sure if it was the big field or the cop car in front or what, but there was a lot of getting up to speed, slowing down to a snail's pace, and speeding up again. Every time I got into a comfortable flow the inevitable slowing would come again. For a while there on the last lap we actually got into a good fast flow for a while, and I thought we'd finally get down to business, but we ended up slowing again.

I'm kind of anxious to hear how the crit went.

That happens a lot in road races where there are rolling hills like that because the front of the pack slows about mid-hill, but the middle is getting a much bigger draft and is still going from the previous hill. The only way it wouldnt have happened is if the field was much smaller and it was an echelon instead of a huge peleton.

The crit was good, but I thought it was too bad that they pulled so many people out, I realize that its safety, but I think a lot of the people racing C should have been in B. Just my opinion though